Roadside Flag

I was struck by this roadside memorial, which I'd noticed a few days ago traveling down to my wife parents' place in Wexford. I had wanted to get out and photograph it but it was a very dangerous place, and I was late as usual. I managed to pull out of the traffic-stream this time, and snatch a few frames (still late of course, mea culpa). Hard to find a good angle; this closeup seemed best. I like little details, the dead leaves in the ditch, the fresh mixed with withered bouquets, the bright synthetic colours of the flag, which might symbolise a number of things: the victim being in the army or police, or a sportsperson, or be some kind of larger political gesture.

Heartless though, to reduce this to aesthetics or a bundle of nosy questions. It marks a person's passing, presumably by a tragic accident; someone (or perhaps more than one) who, as the poet George Szirtes put it, bladed into the big nothing. Goodbye lost life, whoever you are.